


Outside of a cat, a book is a man's best friend

by Zombieprinz



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 20:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4113277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zombieprinz/pseuds/Zombieprinz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emil finds a book, Lalli finds it is too cold in general.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outside of a cat, a book is a man's best friend

**Author's Note:**

> As promised; the muse struck. Also be aware of my nonexistent finnish skills.

The winter had been getting harsher for the last few weeks, and even in the Silent World, inherently more southern than their usual terrain of operation, snow had finally started falling. While the cold weather was an important part in keeping the rest of the world safe from further harm, it proved to be more of a nuisance than actual safety. As it turned out, some rivers were too big for even the cat-tank; not a true amphibian vehicle after all- to cross. And the snowy landscape looked picturesque, but bore more dangers than the small group of explorers were prepared for.  
They were camping in the same spot for about half a week now, waiting for the snowfall to stop. Sigrun had found them a large hall with high windows and only a single entryway that kept them safe from most things lurking out there. Half rotten farming supplies were a sure sign that this had been some large farmer's shed, though it was larger than anyone of them had seen so far.

Though they were stuck, Tuuri was working hard at translating and preserving, the stack of paper in front of her ever growing higher. Emil kept wondering where she was taking all those loose sheets from. It sure wasn't from the outside.

Himself, he had tried helping her, he really had. He wasn't too good at reading or transcribing anything that wasn't written in Swedish, but he figured he could copy words.  
Eventually, Tuuri had shooed him out when he had become bored and started doodling tiny cats chasing trolls in the margins. Maybe it was also because he kept writing the strange words wrong, but that was just a wild guess.

Now he was lying on his cot for the lack of something better to do, one of the freshly deemed readable books held carefully in his hands. He hadn't really had time to read anything since they had departed, and now they were tank-stuck, he figured he could catch up on some educational reading. The fact that his book was anything but didn't really matter to him.

About half an hour into his self assigned reading, there was a commotion outside, Mikkel was shouting, and Emil was already halfway up when Lalli darted in, hair still damp from the decontamination, and shot up on one of the higher cots, wrapping himself into the blanket like a tiny woollen hurricane.  
Seemed like decontamination and cold were a bad combination if one wanted to stay as warm as possible. But it was of no use since Lalli was the only one competent enough to go out in this kind of weather and not only survive, but also not get lost somewhere along the way or breaking through the frozen surface of an invisible lake. That had happened with Sigrun last week, and from then on she had been confined to the camp, much to her annoyance.

Emil chuckled silently at the memory and went back to reading. As far as he could tell it was not of any relevance for anything, though the mention of dwarves and elves classified it was something a mage should look into later. There was also mention of trolls at one point, but after reading over the passage anxiously a few times, he decided that they had noting in common with the real trolls.  
But he liked the style in which the ancient paperback was written, it had something poetic even though it was technically prose, and the academic in him rejoiced.

After some time, maybe a quarter of an hour, Emil looked up again as he heard a shuffling noise and found Lalli staring at him inquisitively from his perch, still buried under the mound of blankets. Realizing he had started to read the text aloud, he put the book down.  
“I'm sorry, did I disturb you?” He had been speaking just above a whisper at best before, but Lalli's heightened senses had picked it up anyway, it seemed.  
He was still not sure if the Finn could actually understand anything he was saying by now, but whatever Emil said, Lalli seemed to read out of his voice and intonation more than actual words anyway. So when the blankets shook slightly with Lalli moving his head in the universal motion of no, he went back to reading, this time without speaking.

A few minutes more and Emil was disturbed again by the mage appearing at the edge of his vision.  
How he had gotten down to the floor, with pulling his blanket along at that, without any noise Emil had no idea.  
“Lue.”  
Emil looked at Lalli for a moment with a blank expression before the Finn made an indicating motion in the direction of the book. Apparently stopping to read aloud had been the wrong tactic.

“Do you even understand of what I'm saying?” This time, Lalli did not understand a word, and looked the part.  
“I don't think you'd be even interested in it. It seems to be a fairytale.” Again no answer, so he started reading. About a fight between good and evil, wizards and a folk of small people and a quest about a ring, peril and happiness found close together. Over time, he found that he didn't stumble over words so much anymore, that the haste in which he had started had vanished and that his voice had taken on a rather melodious quality with the poetry of the words.

From what he could see, Lalli seemed to like getting read to, even without understanding. He was sitting on the floor, blanket still wrapped around him and chin rested on Emil's mattress. With his electric blue eyes closed, he looked calm, and maybe a bit tired.

“Should I go on? You seem to like it.” Emil asked at one point.  
Lalli cracked an eye open at the disturbance and glared at Emil.  
“Jokainen myytti kantaa oman taika. Lue.“  
“Well then...“  
He hesitated for a moment more. He knew Lalli could sleep almost anywhere if given the chance, but sitting on the floor like that looked more uncomfortable than anything.  
“You want to come up here then?” He patted the mattress beside him for emphasis, or maybe just to indicate what he was saying at all.

Lalli looked at him, eyes wide now. For a moment, Emil thought it had been a bad idea to ask, but before he could backtrack, Lalli had moved. Discarding his blanket he had hopped up onto the bed and without missing a beat curled up at Emil's side. He had even used Emil's more or less relaxed state to lift his arm up and wrap it around his own shoulders.  
Now he was looking at Emil as if he was challenging him to say anything. He had conquered his spot and would now defend it if necessary.

Emil blushed slightly with some lateness, but managed to stay composed. He leaned back again, shifted to find a position comfortable enough to hold for some time. If the motion somehow managed Lalli to move so he was resting his head on Emil's chest in the progress, he didn't really mind. The mage let out an almost happy sigh and Emil allowed himself to carefully run his fingers through Lalli's hair as he started reading again.

All was well for now.

 

* * *

 

[AquaAurion](http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/) made me this gorgeous fanart to go with the fic:

 


End file.
